As you read this, Susan and I are headed to Barber Motorsports Park, for our first in-person race of the season. By the way…there is still a race this weekend. The Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix has sort of taken a backseat to the bombshell that the NTT IndyCar Series dropped on Wednesday morning. People have asked me through text, e-mail and social media my thoughts on what all occurred. My thoughts? It’s too early to tell.
In case you’ve been living under a rock – I’ll try to explain what happened in a paragraph or less. It was inadvertently discovered during the morning warm-up at Long Beach, that the three Team Penske cars were still able to activate their push-to-pass (P2P), when it was supposedly deactivated for the entire field. IndyCar went back to look at data from St. Petersburg and determined that race winner Josef Newgarden and third–place Scott McLaughlin had both benefited from using P2P on restarts when it is supposed to be deactivated for the entire field.
After a review of the data, IndyCar chose to disqualify Newgarden and McLaughlin – giving the win to Pato O’Ward. Their teammate, Will Power, moved up to second-place but was docked ten points. Power avoided disqualification because he never accessed P2P during the unauthorized deactivation periods. But because his car was set up to cheat, he and his team could not escape some form of punishment.
This is the first time I can remember an IndyCar race having the race winner disqualified. At Portland in 1995, Al Unser, Jr. was disqualified due to ride height issues. Jimmy Vasser was declared the winner, but Team Penske appealed and Unser’s win was restored after the season. There was a similar situation in 1983 at Milwaukee, when Tom Sneva was stripped of his win – but that win eas eventually restored.
Of course, we all know the story of Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti in the 1981 Indianapolis 500. Unser won the race, but the next morning – Mario was declared the winner due to Unser passing cars instead of blending in under a yellow. It drug on in the courts for four months before Unser was re-instated as the winner. Unfortunately, it cause a rift between best friends Unser & Andretti that lasted almost four decades. Fortunately, they put the past behind them and settled their dispute in May of 2018, before Bobby passed away in 2021.
Each of those instances were appealed This disqualification is either too egregious to appeal, or Team Penske has already said they won’t; so the disqualifications will stick. I’m not going to say it has never happened, but this is the first time I can remember an IndyCar race win being vacated permanently.
I say it’s too early to tell, because this story is still evolving. Team Penske says it was an innocent mistake, due to not changing software back after hybrid testing. Some are taking that story at face value. Others have developed some of the wildest conspiracy theories you can imagine, that claim that Team Penske, the drivers, Chevy, Cosworth, Dallara, IndyCar and probably even Las Vegas was in on it.
I don’t know that I totally buy this was a totally honest mistake, but I tend to lean more that direction than some of the wild theories I’ve heard. The fact that Power never used his P2P illegally tells me that the drivers did not know it was available. I get the story that drivers inadvertently push the button. That’s the sort of thing I would do. Who knows? It might work. If it does work, and you don’t push it, the car behind you may push it and pass you.
Who knows where this will go. The fallout could be immense and identify this whole season, or it may be ancient history by the time the Month of May opens with the Sonsio Grand Prix. But I can tell you one thing; Roger Penske was not happy about this. I would not want to be Jay Frye telling The Captain that his team was cheating and the series was going to disqualify two of his three drivers and take away a win in the process.
Kudos to IndyCar for not sweeping this under the rug, just to please the boss. This should do away with the sentiment that Team Penske gets special treatment because the team-owner also owns the series. If anything, they may have punished the team more, just to dispel that notion. This could really get interesting this weekend – stay tuned!
Speaking of this weekend, the series heads south to the beautiful facility at Leeds, AL, just east of Birmingham. The term beautiful facility became a punchline after the first time IndyCar raced at Barber Motorsports Park in 2010, because that’s what everyone unanimously said about it. The reason they said it – it was true. I’m not sure there is a race track anywhere that has as many manicured flower beds and blooming dogwoods as Barber. There’s a reason it is called The Augusta of Motorsports. The grounds more closely resemble a golf course than a race track.
Of the permanent road courses that Susan and I have been to, Barber is our second-favorite. Road America barely edges ahead, mostly due to the history and the surrounding area; but Barber certainly wins in aesthetic beauty.
The first few races at Barber were not spectacular, but they were run with the old Dallara. Once the DW12 was introduce in 2012, the track has raced a lot better. Lately, the 16-turn, 2.34 mile natural terrain road course has provided excellent racing.
The track plays no favorites. Since 2019 (with no race in 2020), this race has been won by four different teams. Takuma Sato (Rahal), Alex Palou (Ganassi), Pato O’Ward (McLaren) and Scott McLaughlin (Penske) have won those four races. Josef Newgarden has won three races at Barber, with Will Power winning two. Those are the only multiple winners that are entered for this weekend’s race. Scott Dixon has never won at Barber.
The weekend schedule is as follows; Friday’s practice gets underway on Peacock at 3:40 pm EDT. Saturday’s practice will start at 12:15 pm EDT, with qualifying beginning at 3:30 pm EDT. The Sunday warmup that ended up incriminating Team Penske last week, will run at 10:15 am EDT Sunday. Coverage for the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix will start at 1:00 pm EDT, with the green flag flying at 1:40 pm EDT on Big NBC.
Who will win? Before Wednesday’s bombshell, I was ready to pick Scott Dixon. Going back to last season, Dixon has won four out of his last six races – including last week’s win at Long Beach. But now, I’m thinking that Team Penske is fuming (for whatever reason). They are out to prove they are not the cheaters that all of the fans and memes have been saying they are this week. Whether it’s Newgarden, McLaughlin or Power; I’m saying that a Team Penske driver will win Sunday’s race. I’m not sure I’ve ever picked a team to race, but this is a weird week.
Depending on when we get away, we should be arriving at the track mid-to-late morning. As usual, we will be posting throughout the weekend from the track. We have also been asked to interview Indy NXT driver Lindsay Brewer this afternoon. I don’t really do many interviews, but she has an intriguing story so I wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity to meet with her and talk to her. I will post that interview sometime through the weekend. Please follow along all weekend and also follow us on Twitter (or the X-Box, as Kevin Lee calls it) for photos and videos. Follow me at @Oilpressureblog or Susan at @MrsOilpressure. Please check back later.
George Phillips
Oilpressure 